Applying data science to marketing gets People Pattern $4.5M

People Pattern, an Austin, Texas-based startup focused on targeted marketing, has raised a $4.5 million series A round of venture capital from Mohr Davidow and a collection of private investors. It’s hardly the first company to think about applying new big data and data science techniques in the name of better understanding customers — that’s arguably the most popular use for these techniques — but People Pattern’s approach is noteworthy. It lets users mine both their internal data stores (e.g., Salesforce.com) and external sources (e.g., social media) to predict the highest-value users and the best ways to target them.